You Are Also a Gift
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: Last week, Akane had discovered Ryohei had never celebrated his birthday with a party before. Conveniently, his next birthday was exactly seven days from that day. Which was now today. In the same breath she'd expressed her surprise with, Akane promised to throw him the best every birthday party anyone could ever have. (Ambiguously shippy, Haizaki might also have a crush on Akane)


**Found out Haizaki Ryohei's birthday is tomorrow (25 May), and scrambled to write this based off the one flashback we've seen so far. I decided to start writing Inazuma fanfiction, so why not?**

 **I'm an expert at writing crushes that may or may not exist, by the way. If you ever want to not be clear on whether or not one or two characters like each other in a fanfiction, just convince me to write about them.**

Last week, Akane had discovered Ryohei had never celebrated his birthday with a party before. Conveniently, his next birthday was exactly seven days from that day. Which was now today.

In the same breath she'd expressed her surprise with, Akane promised to throw him the best every birthday party anyone could ever have.

"Wait here so I can set up your surprise," Akane ordered.

Ryohei listened, because he never argued with Akane even when she dared him to jump over a stack of glass plates on his bike or try on her mother's high-heeled shoes. At this time in the morning, around 10 AM, Akane was usually still at home. And although Ryohei preferred to be inside reading manga at this time, there probably wasn't anything weird about standing in the middle of their complex's lawn while his mother was at work instead.

Even when the skies were partly cloudy and threatening to rain.

Halfway across the lawn, Akane turned on heel and ran back to him. "And don't come inside until I say you can," she added, shoving her pointer finger between his eyes for emphasis, "under any circumstances. You hear me?"

"Y-yeah..."

"The surprise is like a whole other birthday present, so you gotta wait. No matter what."

Then she disappeared into her apartment for real and Ryohei waited.

His legs started to feel tired from standing, so he sat down. He watched the clouds in an attempt to judge whether or not it was _really_ going to rain, but never reached a conclusion. Ryohei hoped it wouldn't, but Akane was better at predicting these things than he was and just as likely to leave him outside on accident if it did.

But since she was throwing him a birthday party, he guessed he didn't mind.

He thought about how he'd made rice porridge for breakfast, just like his mother had showed him to, and how he was hungry again even though he'd eaten the entire bowl like he was supposed to.

He started looking for insects among the blades of grass until he remembered that four leaf clovers were supposed to be lucky, and decided Akane would like to have one if he could find it.

'Am I even allowed to give Akane presents on my birthday?' Ryohei wondered after a while.

He thought about that while searching, and eventually decided it was okay. It was his birthday – so he was allowed to give Akane presents if he wanted to. But if Akane _didn't_ want the clover, he would give it to his mom, so it could bring her luck at work.

By the time Akane returned for him, he'd found two grasshoppers, a spider, a centipede, and no clovers, but he'd sort of given up anyway in favor of dropping ants into the spider's web. According to Akane, it was possible to find stag beetles the size of her hand in the countryside. Ryohei wondered if there were any spiders big enough to eat a beetle that large, but since they weren't quite countryside enough he had to make due with whatever was currently taking up residency nearby.

Sometimes Akane joined him in spider feeding and sometimes she scolded him because ants had lives too, but usually it was the former because there were at least a thousand ants for every one spider and she shared his concern for the spiders' well-being.

Today it was neither.

She grabbed Ryohei's wrist before he realized she was behind him, fingers tight with a sort of rare intensity that left little white marks in his skin after she'd dragged him to his feet. The sky was still gray, but her green eyes would've been brighter than even the sun shining at its fullest. A little breath escaped from Ryohei's throat; he hadn't been aware he was holding it, but Akane had also surprised him by sneaking up like that.

As usual, Akane was the first to speak. "The surprise is ready!"

Apparently, she didn't trust him to get there on his own, because she grabbed his wrist again. Her grip was looser this time.

"What kind of surprise?"

He'd been thinking about it all week, and struggling not to ask. A part of him hadn't believed Akane.

"It's a surprise, silly!"

"C'mon – "

"There's a cake with lots of frosting," Akane promised, "and decorations. I got you a present!"

"Is it another bear?" Ryohei asked, their feet _clacking_ up the metal stairs.

He still had the first one, on a shelf above his bed. Her name was Kumako, because Akane hadn't let him rename her.

"I-it's not a bear!" Akane huffed, twisting the doorknob to her family's apartment.

Ryohei didn't think parties were normally held at one's best friend's house, but it was okay. He liked Akane's place enough for it not to matter, even though some of the kids at school went to the amusement park or the movie theater for their parties.

"It's okay if it's a bear," Ryohei insisted quietly. "I like bears too..."

He hadn't liked bears before he'd met Akane, but that was okay too. Most of the movies they watched were Ryohei's favorites, so they were even.

"Well, it's not a bear, okay?"

"It's definitely a bear," Ryohei decided.

The inside of the apartment looked like an office supply store had blown up inside. There were hand drawn "Happy Birthday!" signs taped to the couch, the cupboards, and even one on the ceiling, and poorly folded napkins on the kitchen table. Ryohei had shown her how to make origami cranes once, but Akane was still pretty bad at it.

Her paper airplanes were even worse. And if the napkins weren't supposed to be cranes or airplanes, he wasn't sure what they were.

"We have to clean this up before my parents get home, by the way," Akane mumbled so quickly he almost missed it.

"What?"

"Never mind, never mind! Now, try your cake!"

He was perfectly capable of walking, but Akane tried to force Ryohei to move faster by dragging him. In the middle of the kitchen table, obscured by the surrounding napkins, was a small, square slab coated in an entire jar of frosting.

"I couldn't find any sprinkles," Akane apologized.

"You made a cake?" Ryohei replied in disbelief.

"Eat it, Ryohei!"

Ryohei obeyed, using the spoon in front of him, and couldn't even swallow without making a face. "Did you just put frosting on a block of tofu?"

Akane laughed sheepishly, giving herself away. "I couldn't convince my parents to buy a whole cake... They said your mom would probably give you one. But we can still eat the frosting later!"

He nodded reluctantly, even though right now all he wanted was to get the taste of frosted tofu out of his mouth.

"You ate your cake, now it's time for presents!"

He wondered if birthday parties always moved this quickly.

"I didn't have time to wrap anything, so close your eyes."

In the time it took Akane to dart into her room and return, Ryohei realized he hadn't been to the bathroom since that morning. It would probably be rude to ask if he could use the restroom at his own birthday party though.

"Open your eyes!"

He'd barely opened his eyes before exclaiming, "I knew it, it was another bear!"

"Wrong!" Akane corrected him in singsong, her voice high-pitched and teasing. "It's a soccer ball!"

"Eh?"

"You said you wanted to play soccer. I bought you a soccer ball, and I found the perfect place to set up a goal post and practice, and... Um..."

It was unusual for Akane's voice to suddenly drop off like that. Ryohei's spine stiffened; he was worried, even if he hadn't realized it yet.

"What?"

"Oh, I was just thinking that we should play a lot during summer vacation. We might not have as much time once school starts."

"But we play all the time when school – "

"Akane, are you still home?" Akane's mom knocked from the other side of the door.

The two friends surveyed the mess surrounding them, and Ryohei immediately forgot what he'd been about to say. "Quick, Ryohei, start cleaning!"

 **Akane has just found out she might be selected for Ares, if it's not clear.**

 **How's everyone liking Ares so far? Goujin is currently my favorite character. I hope he perfects a beautiful Fire Lemonade technique some day soon.**


End file.
